Harvesting heads for agricultural harvesters employ a left side endless belt conveyor that conveys crop material from the left side of the harvesting head toward the center of the harvesting head and a right side endless belt conveyor that conveys crop material from the right side of the harvesting head toward the center of the harvesting head. These belts typically convey material at the same speed.
As shown in FIG. 1, when the harvesting head 100 is traveling on the side of a hill harvesting crop, one end of the harvesting head is lower than the other.
One of the conveyors 102 lifts cut crop material as it carries it upward and toward the center of the harvesting head. The other of the conveyors 104 lowers cut crop material as it carries it downward and toward the center of the harvesting head.
Even though the two conveyors 102, 104 are operating at the same speed (indicated by the velocity arrows in FIG. 1), the cut crop material is deposited off-center on a center conveyor 106.
This off-center deposition can cause the center conveyor 106 to feed poorly. This, in turn, can cause misfeeding of crop material and blockages. When this occurs, the operator must stop the agricultural harvester, climb down from the operator station, manually remove the misfed material, and then returned to the operator station to continue harvesting. This process of clearing the harvesting head is time-consuming.
What is needed, therefore, is a system that monitors the roll angle of the agricultural harvester and automatically reduces or eliminates the off-center deposition of cut crop material on the center conveyor 106.
It is an object of this invention to provide such a system.